Instructors
Yumi Moon - Assistant Professor, Department of History

This course will examine seminal works and major debates in the historiography of Korea. The three basic questions found in those debates are: First, why did the Chosôn dynasty (1392–1910) last so long without any major rebellions, yet fail to reform itself and succumb to the Japanese colonization of the country? Korean historians have found the reasons in the dynasty’s differences from those of China and Japan and in its peculiar characteristics of kingship and social structure. Second, if the Chosôn dynasty did not succeed in reforming itself, how do you explain Korea’s transition to modernity? This question elicits the concept of “colonial modernity,” multifaceted yet inevitably connected to the “transformative” role of Japanese colonialism in Korea. Third, if Japan’s rule in Korea brought modernity to Korea, how do we understand its explosive collapse leading to the outbreak of the Korean War? Bruce Cuming’s monumental work provides an answer to this question, but many subjects about the transitional period between the late colonial period and the decolonization of Korea have not yet been explored.

Korean history in the United States has been developed through its contention with the nationalist narratives of Korean historians in Korea and its comparison with China and Japan. This comparative perspective is embedded in the historiography of Korea and has been challenged or revisited in most recent publications in Korean Studies. This course will discuss this comparative perspective in the assigned readings, as well as at their substance and findings, in order to look for a new paradigm in writing Korean history.

The course texts are available at the campus bookstore and will be on reserve in Green Library. Additional readings will be on the course website.

Level
Undergraduate